Tonight, the fight is on.
We're going to war it looks like...
Kris is about ready to get his ass kicked.
These miners are in for the battle of their lives.
On the Bering Sea, a battle is brewing between a heavyweight
and a scrappy challenger.
Kris Kelly idiot.
waste my [bleep] time with
this stupid
He's gonna mine here, right where we're set up?
After I've done all this work, finding the gold, he's out of his mind.
Kris Kelly and tattoo face, they are gonna get
a rude awakening about who I am.
Here we go.
Yay!
Our operator, James, has permission to work on Tomcod.
We're gonna go where the gold is.
I don't give a damn what Shawn Pomrenke thinks about it.
This [bleep] stands right now.
You can't do this.
I'm gonna knock you.
I can't hear you, you stupid
knock you off.
You know, you think you can raise your voice
reach that far, you [bleep] idiot.
Read the [bleep] regulation.
You got to right next door.
You need to read regulations.
You baring regulation.
You [bleep]...
Read the [bleep] rules.
You're right next to us.
Read the [bleep] rules, idiot.
I got you like that.
I did not do.
- I've got you on lot camera and video too. - Pull your permit.
Get the
Well, I can't hear you, you
Boop.
Bo-boho.
Real [bleep] funny, you stupid [bleep].
I'm gonna get your permit pulled, you...
Take it You don't get that.
Read the rule.
You read 'em. I was here first.
You don't know how to read.
I was here [bleep] first.
You are digging.
Yes, we were.
You [bleep] come and mark our spot and jump on us, you
You're a [bleep] liar.
You're gonna go down, Kris.
Let's do this.
idiot.
They've come and marked our spot and jump on us.
stupid.
Shawn's just a hillbilly.
He's trying to tell me about regulations.
You know, the guy just goes way over there.
Hey, what the would he even know.
Yeah, baby.
Okay.
Make that gold.
We're gonna keep going.
And no one's gonna stop us.
so tired of that.
Kris [bleep] telling.
I see a lot of gold, big chunky beads in and a lot of flour.
I don't know how much gold we have, but I know we got gold.
I know we got gold.
Come on, baby. We got gold.
We're in it.
Yeah, they're out of their element now.
They need to back off.
You're on my bouy.
I'll [bleep] sink that bitch in a heartbeat.
We'll just keep digging and [bleep] or what?
I don't need this right now.
They think this is their ocean.
I don't think so.
I'm here to stay.
Go.
Yeah.
Just back out of there.
Just don't...
Let's not [bleep], around here.
So, I'll just...
They're leaving now.
Yeah! Yeah!
- He just tried to throw his weight against us. - Yeah.
And we're the [bleep] wall you cannot smash.
You know, Shawn's realized that his...
his [bleep] all-star team is [bleep] half the team we got.
The Kris team rose and everybody associated with it isn't afraid.
They tucked tail and ran.
That's what I like.
Watch them [bleep] retreat.
I put them back out there on some sand.
I made it. Now no one's gonna stop me.
Yeah. Some [bleep] up.
Just pisses me off.
Bering Sea is no place to be messing around
with heavy equipment.
I ain't putting my crew or my equipment at risk.
I'm gonna work on getting their authorization pulled.
But right now, I need to concentrate on making gold.
I can't lose sight of that.
Kris Kelly and his little excavator toy,
he'll be his own worst enemy.
Trust me.
I don't [bleep] need this right now.
I don't.
stress the out and got enough to worry about.
And little Willie's weasly ass and [bleep] Kris Kelly and Kevin.
Now, I might as well finish this hole out
and then we'll step ahead.
I'm not gonna worry about these guys right now.
I want to punch Kris Kelly in the face.
And spray him with a little bit of mace.
So, it's over for the day.
I'm not saying we won the battle
because I'm sure something will come from this later on.
But it's probably the beginning of a very long [bleep] year.
As a new day dawns on the Bering Sea,
the battle moves from within the fleet to a fight with Mother Nature.
In less than 24 hours, the first major storm of the summer
will descend on Nome.
Forcing the miners off the water until it passes.
So now it's imperative to cash in while the window of opportunity remains open.
And in the harbor...
So, we're ready to go do some judging.
Oh, yeah.
I'm ready.
All right.
One captain is looking to harvest his kingdom
while the getting's good.
Okay, I'm gonna power into it.
Hold on to it. Don't let it bite your hand.
Claim 56 of the products claim in Nome.
And so far, this summer, we've kept the winning streak going
that we started last season.
Okay, let it go.
I'm gunning for 300 ounces, which quite honestly ought to be easy peasy.
You'll be first up.
So, you check all your dive gear, I mean...
No, I was gonna go do that right now.
I want you to do it like, right now.
- Yeah. - Before we get too far.
I've taken a little punch.
I don't have the same killer team that I had last summer.
I've got Bryan Wilder back.
But I'm also gonna have to rely on a crew member
who's tended for me a little bit in the past but has never dove.
My objective today is same as every day
to go out there and get some gold.
Bryan has the last dive, so now it's Max's turn.
So, we'll get him all tagged out
and put it in the water here pretty damn quick.
The weather is about to be turned over the next couple of days.
And so, we're gonna go out there a little bit deeper on the claim.
We're here.
I'm gonna anchor up and see how it hangs.
Truth is, I'm a little nervous about this.
I've got big plans for this summer.
Basically, I want to even the playing field with Shawn.
But in order for that plan to work,
I need a little Max to get acclimated to this job quick.
The gold is there for the taking.
He just got to learn how to snag it.
Let's go ahead and fire it up and get him in the water.
Okay, Max, take your time going down.
Take your time going down.
Diver in the water.
All right. I'm at the bottom.
All right.
Yeah. Hey, Max.
That's the first time you've been down.
How you making out?
I'm all right.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Right now, our main thing is,
just be careful and work back into it.
Yeah.
He's only has been down a couple of minutes.
The material he's working.
Does not appear to have been worked before.
We'll give him a chance to make a cut and see if he's seeing any gold.
The only thing I can hope is that
we can make a withdrawal from our royal gold bank
at the bottom of the Bering Sea.
It's a new dawn. It's a new day.
Making [bleep] happen.
As the storm front looms on the distant horizon...
Emily Riedel is hoping for another round in the ring
before the Eroica's team is forced off the water.
Nice morning.
I'm building a family and I'm also building a legacy.
I'm aiming for 250 ounces this summer,
and I need it because I depleted my nest egg sitting out the winter.
Luckily, Rick landed on a great spot day one, first time out in the water.
So, we started off strong.
So, I want to hit it hard today before that storm rolls in.
Sounds good.
Hey, how's it going?
I'll tell you what, for visibility, this is perfect.
I mean, you couldn't ask for better, really?
Whoo-oh. I know.
Yup.
We're in.
Oh, yeah, baby.
This is... Money right here.
All that flower gold is just amazing.
And it's all over this little gravel stuff.
Heck yeah, buddy.
I mean, I love it.
Oh-oh.
What's up?
Ah...
Yeah. Let me check. One second.
Oh, no.
Rick's losing suction.
Something's up with the pump motor.
Obviously, we can't mine for gold if the pump motor is not functioning correctly.
If the pump motor's not running, there's no way to suck up gold.
Um, I needed an awesome day to day, and it's not going well.
Oh, it's It's really
We're losing RPMs off the motor.
Oh,
Coming up?
Yeah, I'm coming up.
I mean, there's nothing I can do down here.
Yea, dude. This sucks.
It's always when we're on good gold
and the weather's perfect, got to kind of get to work
and figure out what the hell's going on.
Go for it.
Yeah, we'll look for what's going on in the pump motor.
I can't fix it out here.
We're gonna pull the gear up and bring the boat in.
And this whole day is just gone to hell.
Hopefully this just a super simple fix.
But time is money.
We're... we're losing it right now the weather could change like that.
This is the time that we have to make our money.
We're losing thousands of dollars.
This is, like, insane.
Back in Nome.
Well, it's great to be back in Nome.
Oh, man. Oh.
The fleet's most notorious nomad touches down.
We got the wheeler somewhere in the parking lot.
I forgot where it is.
Huh?
There it is.
Forgot about the windshield.
Look at that.
It's been raining inside it.
Oh, boy, pretty wet in there.
This thing's been here for three months.
After the winter season, I just left it.
Oh, that's 90 days, huh?
They give... they give you a break 'cause they know it's a tough place to live.
Basically for me at this point,
it's just fighting to survive up here.
Not only can't I afford a dredge,
but I can't even afford a windshield for my wheeler.
You know, hitting the ground here in Nome,
the first thing you think about is, you know, gold mining.
But I... I can't be gold mining without a windshield in my...
in my side by side.
So, I'll find a windshield and put it on.
That's the first thing I'm gonna do here in Nome.
So, there you go.
So, the question is, what is the best way for me to stay afloat.
And I think I've come up with a pretty good plan.
I decided to mooch.
I decided to look for owners that are looking for a little extra help.
Help is scarce up here, so I should be good.
And I think I need to scrounge up a windshield.
That little rat Vernon ripped me off for the windshield.
I know he's got my glass windshield here.
It should have come with the wheeler,
when I stopped the wheeler I should have had it.
I know the windshield's here.
It's where?
I made a fair and square deal
with Vernon for this wheeler last summer.
How about five and a half?
How about eight?
I'll give you six ounces of gold for it.
Thank you very much.
Whoo-oh.
But the big bugger, Vern, he just forgot to throw in a windshield.
But I think if I just go up to his scrap yard,
I'll find something he won't miss it.
Might be in here.
I'm not gonna go into a lock on it, but it looks not locked.
Vernon.
Nope.
No, Vernon, No windshield.
Look at this.
Treasure trove plywood.
Just sitting here rotting.
That guy got too much money.
There's some really cool around here.
I could use some of this stuff.
Oh. Oh.
Here's a box.
Oh, there it is.
The windshield.
Cool. I'm just gonna grab this.
Oh, man. Dry roads.
When I'm dreaming of dry rides.
Dream about a dry rides, no mud in the face and the goggles.
And just like that, I'm ready for summer.
I got to find a set of tools and then put this thing on.
I thought it was gonna be a great day today.
I thought we were gonna keep pressing forward.
But my boat's down and we're dead in the water.
Miles away, a storm may be gathering,
but on this morning a storm is already raging upon our Reaper nation.
We're coming up to the boat I'm steering a little bit here.
We'll see what's going on.
So, I started off my day at the crack of dawn.
James calls me right off the bat and tells me
the Mistress is unable to mine.
Like this is day two and this crap is already happening?
Going to see how bad it is.
But it just it's not working.
It's gonna be one of those days.
The secret arrangement that I have with Kevin is,
he supplies most of the money in the beginning,
but that's just to get it started,
to get the equipment we need.
There are still payments that need to be made,
and we have a big one coming up.
I'm worried about making my payment at the end of the month
if we have to bring our boat in today.
That's what I'm worried about.
We need 125,000 for the first installment on most of this stuff.
Thank you.
Which is, I don't know, a lot of money.
Yeah.
I was standing right here and it just leaned over and I was like...
You guys are the one that [bleep] welded this sack [bleep].
The spuds are crucial to operating this barge.
And right now, one of the spud towers are cracking and twisting.
The welds aren't holding up.
And this tower has already been an issue with Kevin and I.
This actually was a lot more expensive than I thought it was gonna be.
Well, how much?
$40,000.
- I spent 40,000 on just this. - No, we didn't.
Yeah, we did.
40,000?
The Mistress doesn't have anchors.
That's what the spuds are for.
So, if the spuds aren't working properly,
we can't keep the boat on one spot.
In reality, we can't mine if it's not fixed.
This was a $40,000 disaster that you came up with.
This isn't so.
So, the game plan was to waste $40,000 is that our game plan?
My thought is [bleep] piece of
my thought is we're gonna reinforce it like a [bleep].
Put that half inch on top.
Put that other pulley in and we're going back out.
That's my [bleep] thought.
I like that, let's do it.
I don't mean to get angry, but I'm so so stressed.
You have no idea.
And I don't mean to be stressed.
Fire up the thrust master, please.
We're gonna make this work.
You know, we'll make this work fast.
We're going to the dock to reweld the towers
so it's not so screwed up.
Hopefully the bad weather coming.
We got to do it fast.
We're up against it.
We're on the ropes here.
Okay.
We're about to go back into the harbor so we can fabricate this.
I'm sure it's not gonna be done 100% correctly,
but I guarantee my fixes will last for the rest of the season.
Turn into a nightmare.
Bad juju.
While the Mistress heads in, back out on the Tomcod.
Oh, no, the Mistress is broken.
Kris Kelly, he wants to beat me so bad.
But the fact of the matter is, he hasn't worked hard enough in his life
to get to where I'm at.
I mean, you got to do right,
you can't come jump on people claims,
he wants to do illegal and be a anything.
, man, he can be a piece of
but he ain't gonna do it but [bleep] me over.
Doing this job is not easy.
I've been at this for decades.
I've been learning, studying, figuring out how every ounce of gold
is gonna be earned and spent.
You can't just walk in here and think you're gonna be a gold mogul overnight.
Not a chance.
Weather's good for now, but we've got weather coming in,
so we got to put some gold in the box.
Make some money.
We got all three lots ran from it.
Myrtle Irene, Christine Rose.
And the Inland are firing on all cylinders today.
We're having a party.
The only one that wasn't really invited was Kris.
If brains were dynamite,
Kris Kelly wouldn't have enough power to blow his nose.
Oh.
What up?
He's doing and doing...
What happened?
Bad problem at even a worse time.
Belt on the shaker plant snapped.
The shaker is vital to the offshore mining operation.
It separates all the oversize rock from the ocean sediments
that we process.
Without it, we're screwed.
Quick, change it.
It'll go on easy.
Until we get a new belt on the shaker, we're down.
Luckily, putting on a new belt isn't a major deal,
and we have them on the boat.
Got a new belt on there.
go.
Popped it off.
Should be more on board.
There's another one there.
Clear.
Now with that first one.
Clear.
He is [bleep].
One more new one?
One more new one.
The tension isn't tight enough,
so the belts keep sliding off, snapping.
This is a delicate art to get this right.
And this is our last belt.
If we don't get it right, we're done.
They have to fire back up.
Barge.
It's not holding.
No, stop!
It wasn't meant to be.
You just got to loosen these four bolts,
slide the motor fore back, put a little more tension on the...
everything.
We're gonna make an adjustment.
Hopefully this does the trick.
We got one more day to mine before the storm comes in,
kicks us off the water for a while.
I got to keep this baby going.
It takes a lot of gold to pay for this operation.
And if I don't get production from the Myrtle today,
we're gonna be in a seriously bad place.
Bering Sea gold gods, please be on my side.
Giving it some [bleep].
Gold mining Juju.
Go, boy.
Clear!
Hell yeah.
Time to make some money instead of spending.
Man, this material looks really good.
And we can keep everything up and running.
We'll have that gold room burning and turning.
We're gonna get as many hours on the box as we can.
You've got to make hey while the sun shines.
Yeah. Hey, Max, how you making out?
We've been...
Looking to turn his operation into one of Nome's
golden kingdoms, Vernon Adkison is hoping his rookie diver
learns on the job, quick.
He's not seeing it.
There's great silt down there,
which would make it hard to see gold.
Yeah, Yeah. Max, you're not seeing it right now.
Just go ahead and start moving around and do some prospecting.
All right.
Dammit.
Rough currents and deeper water can easily rattle a diver,
particularly an inexperienced one like Max.
It's not unusual to get headaches
or even the bends in that situation if you're not up to par.
Hey, Max, you've got 3 hours, man.
Try and suit it up.
Why don't you come on up?
Needless to say, I'm disappointed.
But I've just got to get Bryan in there
and start getting some friggin' gold.
All right. Come up nice and slow.
Max had to come up, we got a couple of hours in.
He had a headache.
It didn't sound like he was onto really anything hot.
And so, let me go up here and take a look at the damn GPS.
I think we're out of it.
But we've got to reposition.
That's part of mining, you've got to reposition every now and then.
You don't just drop the anchor and stay there all day.
So, we're not all good gold, we'll go look for another spot.
Dammit.
I got a headache, too.
Anchor's off.
Okay.
This day is starting to piss me off.
The new kid didn't get on anything special.
And now the current is starting to blow us off our hotspot.
We've got to try to reposition and get back on the good stuff.
Plus, these winds are telling me that there's a storm not far off.
I need every day to count.
And so far, this day has not counted for squat.
Okay.
Fire it up again.
Bryan's gonna go down.
Let the man take a look around,
pop some holes spend an hour or two.
But I would like to get a little gold in the box, if you know what I mean.
Slowly, Bryan.
Slowly.
Yeah. I just got to go down slow.
Try to be equal out.
Bryan...
he got a habit of bleeding because he won't properly clear his ears.
I've seen him with blood coming out of his eyes and his ears.
Over a yard, equalize and get comfortable.
All right.
I won't mess with him right now,
but just give it a couple of minutes,
we got some good weather here.
And we got to take advantage of this opportunity.
I want to think of gold in a box.
Back at the harbor...
Time to get out on the water.
Coughing.
Dude I got my summer working.
Got the boat all gassed up, ready to go.
We'll go out and was thinking about something else.
Um, I'm gonna go out and I'm going to...
Yeah.
Well, yeah, I'm gonna go out and my plan is to go
and map out a bunch of underwater features.
Try to find some islands to cobble out of the sand and hold them.
And that's my plan.
This summer, mad scientist Zeke Tenhoff has tied his hopes
and dreams to Mr. Gold and the Tomcod claim.
Well, yeah, We're ready.
We're ready to roll. Let's go.
My brother and I have a good deal going with Shawn.
He's letting us mine out on Tomcod,
and we're leasing the Havilah from him
and giving him a percentage of that gold.
Let's get out there and get after it.
- Let's make some money. - Yeah.
I'm gonna use my rig to map out this untouched ground
in deeper water, and I'll pass the info on to Gabe
who's getting the Havilah ready for mining.
The problem is, I thought that I could prospect on my own
with this little dredge that I made,
but it's just like proving too hard for me.
And I'm getting wiped out and I need help.
So, I'm bringing in an extra hand.
Oh-oh.
I'm a little late, but I'm ready for the day.
I even brought paper towels.
Good morning, Zeke.
Good morning.
Okay. Go ahead, Zeke.
First voyage of the season for me.
I'm not entirely sure how much Steve helped us last winter.
Pizza delivery.
But Steve wasn't a hindrance for me, so that's good.
So, if you can just keep that up,
I think it'll be great having him out there.
All right.
I'm gonna start logging some sonar charts here.
Good, I'm gonna like just anchor up right here.
Yeah. Looks like a good spot.
All right.
Good to go.
Oops.
Oh, I filled up the wrong fuel tanks.
Trying to accelerate, really add pressure to that tank,
so it drains out more.
But I don't think it's worthwhile.
I think you've got too much gas in your brain when you do that and it's bad.
I mean, the thing about getting high on gas is you have to just like,
fight through it, you know.
I feel great.
Ooh.
Exxon.
Yeah. There we go.
Damn.
Will do.
You're good to go.
Roger that.
Focus on the gold, not the noise.
And now it's time for another edition of,
Do you know your miner?
Steve Riedel has worked with plenty of teams over the years.
Cold means gold.
So, take that cold and turn it into gold.
But have you ever asked yourself
what purpose does he actually serve aboard a crew?
We do have coffee, don't we?
Does Steve, A, prepare the team for rough seas ahead?
Ooh. Got some good swells coming in.
Oh.
You okay, buddy?
No.
B, serve up high end cuisine.
Right in there.
It's heating up fast.
Oh, look at it. Go.
No one on the earth like Steve Riedel.
Whoo!
Or C, always be at the ready.
What the you doing?
Steve, come on. Damn it.
What?
And the correct answer is...
honestly, we have no idea what Steve does.
But whatever it is, nobody does it better.
And so ends another edition of "Do you know your miner?"
Much better.
In Nome, the first major storm of summer
is set to strike by nightfall.
So, for the fleet, the fight is on to gather the gold
before Mother Nature knocks them out.
And out on the Bering Sea...
Box is running really nice,
seeing some color in there.
Mr. Gold currently has the Tomcod all to himself.
It doesn't look like the Kellys are out here.
Oh, too bad.
Got every tentacle of my operation running.
While Kris is sitting at the dock,
that's what happens when you bite off more than you can chew.
And believe me, that's what that joker is doing.
Running a little rinky dink dredge.
Doesn't set you up for the reality of running an excavator barge.
That boy is in way over his head.
That they're evaluating their [bleep] decisions right now.
Back at the dock...
Here we sit.
Everybody else is making money but us.
I just need this [bleep] thing to pay me.
I'm getting you all kinds of things that treat you good,
you [bleep] sack of
Like everything's gonna work out really good, dude.
Kris Kelly is in the midst of a stressful and costly pit stop.
This has been a [bleep] disaster.
We're stuck fixing the stupid rigging on the spud tower.
Bad weather is gonna kick our ass in less than 24 hours.
And if that's not enough, 17 days to come up with $125,000,
that's a [bleep] feat.
I got to come up with a massive payment at the end of the month
or basically the Mistress can be repossessed.
So, you could say there's a storm on the horizon.
It's called my life right now.
But it is what it is at this point,
we need to make good on our agreement.
And I'm trying. I'm really trying.
You know, everybody in town is probably laughing at me.
You know, it's... it's my first year right now with this excavator barge.
A lot of people around me sees me coming up
very fast in the mining community,
and some people are a little threatened by that.
They want to make sure I don't get all the way.
I'm not gonna be laughed at.
You know, we're gonna turn this around.
I like it.
Yeah, baby.
He's got the cap on the lattice.
We're about ready to go mining.
I'm so happy to be done with this.
What it should have been done in the first place.
But if this thing fails, this whole boat's gonna be in the water.
I'm a little worried.
The tower is kind of fixed, but we don't have a lot of time right now.
The storm is closing in on us.
So, it's like the tower went in the corner.
It got patched up.
Now it's back in the ring, ready to take a beating.
It's iffy, but I just keep thinking about the payment coming due.
What do you think?
Should we take the risk?
My gut feeling says no.
But like, my desperation says, [bleep] yeah.
If we don't take the chance,
we might be losing the boat at the end of the month.
We can't. This is the only way we can do it.
You know we can't be safe.
- Yup. - Okay.
Well, that's what we're gonna have to take the risk.
We'll... we'll take that risk and make it happen.
All systems are go.
We got green across the board.
Time to get out there and make some gold.
Get the [bleep] out of here.
Tell them, Kevin.
Two miles east...
- Here we go. - Yeah.
Yeah.
All right. Well, let's prime this and see what happens.
With the clock at ticking before a storm knocks them to the sidelines.
Emily Riedel is trying to get her pump engine a-pumping
and the gold flowing ASAP.
I think it's the fuel issue.
So we replace with fuel filters.
Hopefully it's back.
We could make some money today.
I'm going for 250 ounces this... this summer.
So, we've got to get to mining right away.
I'm hoping that all the pump motor needs is a fuel purge
and the change of filter.
If that's it, then we'll get back on the gold
and we'll kill it the rest of the day.
If there's a deeper issue with the diesel motor than a fuel problem.
Then we're completely screwed for it today.
Ready?
Yeah. Hit it.
Whoo-hoo!
So far, it's running.
So, get back out there.
That's running fine may as well.
- All righty. - All right.
- Hi-five. - Hi-five.
Maybe this is my year.
Yesterday we crushed it, and today we dodged a massive bullet.
Yeah, we can get Rick back onto the water,
get some gold in the box and keep the train moving.
Come see it's all good.
How is your suction?
Yeah, dude. That's awesome.
Whoo!
Are you in some chunky stuff, Rick?
Like that...
nugget you found the other day?
Sounds good, brother.
With this stuff, we cross our fingers.
We got some weather coming in, so.
Gosh. I hope we make some money today.
12 miles west...
So, Zeke, for our audience around the world,
millions looking on daily basis for gold.
Are you finding any?
Yeah. It seems like the cod is holding.
It's pretty consistent along this whole line that I'm working.
Roger that.
A new dynamic duo may be forming on the mighty Tomcod claim.
Hey, Steve.
Yo, Zeke.
You... you found a nugget?
Yeah.
Yeah, um, I... I like a...
I like a nugget that looks like Africa.
Nice. I'll take it.
Oh, that's nice.
That's huge.
Yeah!
That's my kind of gold there, big old hunks of it.
Looks like Africa.
See you like that there.
Just like Africa. Just like it.
Man, that is a nice nugget.
It is a nice one, man.
It's huge.
Like, I don't know how much you think is gonna weigh,
quarter an ounce?
I was guessing about a quarter.
Maybe about quarter.
Actually it's quarter, to a third maybe.
Cool.
If I'm in a place where there's nugs like this.
There isn't really any question that I stay in this place,
because there'll probably be more nugs like this.
And if you hit a couple of these today,
it really bumps up your average, big time.
Cool. It's a nice one.
It's a fat nug.
This nug is the dankest nug I have ever found.
And this spot is awesome.
I can't wait till we can get the Havilah out here.
There could be dank nugs like this hiding all around this whole area.
I'm gonna smash down one of these sandwiches
I have and get back down there as soon as possible.
There's a bunch of gold around here.
It's great.
It's a good spot here.
It's the right call at this point to get it tender
so I don't have to worry about any of the stuff up top.
And I can focus on staying on the bottom
and getting as much gold as I can.
You ready?
Okay, I'll fire it up. I'll get... full volume on the pump.
We need a couple more nuggets, man.
You know, maybe North America or, you know, Eurasia.
You can find a Eurasia one.
That would be hot.
Okay. Steve.
Awesome.
Another day, another dollar on the Bering Sea.
With the patchwork holding on the spud tower,
the Mistress looks to get in a few licks before the oncoming storm.
We're out here on last stages warning,
we got a big storm coming in.
It's up to us today to stay on the gold
and try to get as much as we can.
Reaper Nation cannot be denied.
The spud tower turns into junk.
No problem. We fix it.
We're back out here mining,
which is really important because we need a lot of gold to make
our first payment.
And I know we're gonna be down for a bit
once this storm hits.
So, all that matters is nothing else goes wrong today,
and we'll be fine.
You hear that?
Oh,
Oh, what the is going on now?
Well, that's not good.
Okay.
All right.
Cool.
We don't have a bunch of replacements for that?
So that stupid pin that keeps the bucket from not falling off, fell off
and these idiots don't have a spare.
So, we're gonna weld some random piece in there and hope it works.
Just kill me now.
Ghetto fabulous fix.
That's how it's done on the ocean.
We're good.
Should work.
Hopefully, if not, the bucket is gonna fall off and it's gonna be epic.
Did you guys hear that Hope that we don't lose the bucket.
That bucket costs $10,000.
That bucket is what brings gold from the bottom of the sea.
Without that bucket, you idiot, there's no gold.
There's no Reaper Nation.
Maybe to that guy, it's not a big deal.
But when you're an owner, let me tell you, it sure is.
Obviously that [bleep] guy doesn't understand the importance
of that bucket or something.
Yeah, baby.
We're back up and running.
Hopefully back on gold.
'Cause we need that gold.
Make that gold.
12 miles east...
Hey, Ricardo.
How does the bottom look?
Oh, it's looking fantastic.
Em.
Whoo-ho!
Yeah. Today we'll have a nice cleanup for sure.
After an earlier engine snafu,
things are really starting to suck for Emily Riedel.
In the very best of ways.
It seems like the suction is good.
I'll keep an eye on it, we got a...
It seems to be back to normal.
This spot has some hot gold.
This is a perfect way to start the season.
And we've got a storm rolling in.
It's gonna shut us down for a couple of days.
It's a gnarly one, but Rick's gonna more than make up for that today.
This is the level I need my operation to be running at all the time.
I want to build this operation into an empire,
and I want to do it for the future of my family.
And I am the Empress.
I am the Queen.
I'm gonna swap out with Alex.
He's like a total role changer to have another captain in the boat.
Now it's like one of you against the world now.
Now it's two of you against the world.
So, hopefully we made a lot of ounces.
Hello.
Now that we're back on gold, I'm gonna have my better half take over.
And I'm gonna go get the gold room set up.
Yo baby?
How are you?
Okay.
Yeah. Then we're gonna get a lot of dive time in today.
I'm gonna have like really solid hours for a...
for a tune up.
Yeah.
In order to ensure our growing empire,
um, my husband Alex is gonna be out here learning the ropes
of the Eroica, learning how to run it,
learning the ins and outs, and he's gonna be taking the reins from time to time.
All right, love you, bunches.
Love you too.
I had asked my husband, Alex to come out and take over for me.
It's really great thing there, I highly recommend it.
I did this alone for a long time and it was hard.
It's really, really hard.
It's just nice, you know, at least in the hope that the dredge behaves itself
and we're able to get really solid hours.
Another day, another drama.
One mile east...
Hey, Bryan.
How are your ears?
Ears are good.
All right. Okay.
Real good.
After his rookie diver got knocked to the mat.
Vernon's hoping that veteran diver Bryan Wilder
can still notch a win on the day.
All right.
Keep at this for a while.
Oh
Hang on a minute.
We got a problem with your air.
What?
What the [bleep]?
Come up, Bryan. Come up.
Don't come up too fast but we're losing air.
Freakin' dammit.
Dude, your air compressor is messed up.
Bryan was down there in deep water and suddenly, boom,
he's not getting air.
We caught it pretty quickly, but sometimes divers will panic
and they'll come up too fast.
The internal pressure between the ear and the nose
can sometimes get out of whack.
And that's how you blow out an eardrum.
I need the nose block.
The nose block came out.
Oh,
We don't need to take that out.
Why... why is it taken out?
Oh, I took it out from Max.
Forgot to put it back in.
Oh, you went down without it?
Forgot.
But don't around.
Do it right.
Otherwise, I'll be taking you back up to the hospital again.
Bryan removed the nose guard from the mask
which is a pretty stupid thing to do.
And sure enough, he came up too fast and the pressure was severe.
Last summer he was bleeding out of his ears.
Now he's bleeding out of his nose.
Just a little bit. It's not that bad.
I feel bad that he got hurt, but dammit,
these kinds of mistakes, they're gonna break me if they continue.
I'll never get the 300 ounces.
I've got the storm starting to blow in.
And as it is, I haven't made enough for cab fare today.
First bad day in a long time.
No, I'm not satisfied with the damn day.
We didn't get any gold in the box.
Hey, we're getting an occasional white cap up here.
Just so you know.
As the clouds roll in and the waves rise ever higher,
the time to throw in the towel is fast approaching.
Okay.
Well, we've had a fantastic day out here, man.
You can come up and consider it a...
a successful day.
No problem.
Yeah.
Yeah, he's coming up.
I see Zeke. I see the light.
Zeke's light is coming up.
I'm bummed that the weather is kicking us off the water already.
But I am really stoked about today went.
Steve didn't let the boat sink and he didn't let me drown.
So that's good.
And also, we know that this area of Tomcod is just loaded with gold.
This is a perfect place for the Havilah to start off.
We're gonna get her going as soon as this storm blows out.
I'm increasingly optimistic about a huge rebound this summer.
Perfect.
Free row.
Yeah. I'm kind of anxious to get home.
I'm tired. It's been a long day.
I've been on the water for 11 hours.
11 hours, about 20 an hour.
Hmm, that's $220.
Everything's running great.
And I'm glad.
I'm really glad that I have some help.
You're the man, Zeke.
You're the manly man. Man and a manly man.
While the storm gathers on the horizon, one mile east...
There you got the, Myrtle.
Ooh.
Mr. Gold's business partner, Dave Young,
checks in on the season's first haul.
First time out this year.
I'm ready to see what they got in there and I can't wait.
Hopefully, it's getting the gold.
We need it.
Go check out the box.
See if we have any gold in there.
With this storm about ready to shut us down,
we've got to make sure we got solid looking gold in the box.
See anything down there?
That's what Dave is looking for.
I don't want to look like an idiot on the first trip out.
Shawn, look at that.
My first nugget with Mr. Gold.
Thank you.
I mean, I'm gonna keep that frame it.
Framing?
It's caked with gold.
Look at that.
Yeah!
I love it.
Love it when a plan comes together.
Yeah.
Well the cleanup will tell the story of how much is in here.
But it looks good.
Too bad we can't get a couple more days before the storm, buddy.
Mats are full.
Yeah, I think we're gonna just boogie in.
Jack up the spuds and we got weather coming in
and I'd rather get this gold safe to the harbor, in the harbor in a pan,
in the safe and in the cash,
because I don't want to push it.
I've been around the block enough times.
To know, when you push it, when you call it.
Gold fever almost took the ship down a few years ago.
Mayday, Mayday.
We're reading a catastrophic tide failure.
Captain Ken got greedy and stayed out way too long.
Now he's having trouble coming in.
It's not good.
You don't build up an operation like
I got by making uninformed decisions.
It takes experience.
You got to know what you're doing.
If not, your whole operation along with your excavator barge will end up
out in the bottom of the ocean floor with the gold.
Back in the safety of the harbor.
Got gold in the box.
Dave's happy.
I'm happy.
Everybody's happy.
They are kicking ass, Myrtle kicking ass.
Kris Kelly is gonna get his ass kicked.
Good run.
It's time to clean some gold.
As Mr. Gold pulls up to the dock.
Back on Tomcod...
Weather is getting worse.
Wind is following the same path as the waves
which is not good because that means it's building.
Despite the worsening weather,
Reaper Nation's still in the throes of mining.
Definitely getting out.
It's starting to white cap.
But we kind of need to push our luck a little bit.
We need to stick it out a little longer.
We need the gold.
I thought you kind of see what we're doing as far as gold goes.
You know, see if it's worth fighting.
Test pans are still looking great.
Pretty close to 100 colors.
It's tough being the owner,
when you're the one with everything on the line.
You're torn, you know, pushing through the bad weather
'cause we need money for the bills.
But this equipment costs a lot of money.
And if I push too hard, it could cost me even more.
It's all a balancing act and the wrong decision will kill you.
And that's all on me.
I'm gonna go with luck of the Irish.
So we're gonna keep going.
Is it the right call considering everything I'm dealing with?
Yes, I think it is.
So, bottom line, we need the gold.
So, there's no choice here.
We stay.
I have a huge payment to make at the end of the month.
And we can't say we were a bunch of
that's why we didn't make our money.
They know the only way I'm gonna get gold is if I sit out here,
14 hours a day to get it.
So, this boat has to sit out here.
I think we should live life on the edge.
How's it looking, Bryan?
Pretty good.
Not bad, huh?
Yeah, well, you know, considering.
Despite taking a few punches,
Vernon Adkison hoping to hit the scoreboard
before the upcoming storm shuts him down.
We had a compressor kick out on us that cost us some time.
When Max went down, he got a headache.
And then when you came up, you were bleeding out the nose,
at least you weren't bleeding out the ears.
Yeah. I know.
I'm not sure if we had 99 problems today, but we were damn close.
Not what we wanted.
Not with this storm blowing in.
We'll see how we do with its way out.
But something's telling me we're gonna have to do some serious rebounding.
Well let's pour it up and see what we got.
One ounce.
One and half.
Two.
Two-point-six two ounces for a dive day with problems?
I'll take it.
Yeah.
2.6 ounces.
It's worth over $4000.
I'm trying to build a kingdom, but with this much gold,
all I can do is maybe buy a doormat for the gate.
It's not like, "Yippee-ki-yay
We're rich."
But we got enough to pay the bills and keep us in the game.
Look, this isn't getting us where we wanna be.
But Nome wasn't built in a day.
I'm confident that we can get back out there
and have smooth dives from here on out and get that 300 ounces.
I hope to hell we'll be able to get back on that spot.
- Easy gold, but hard to hold. - Yeah.
And like some girls I used to know.
Tag it and bag it.
On the outskirts of Nome.
We had water in the filters.
We're gonna like bring it in and then swap out the filters.
He ended up being right.
It's looking pretty good.
Yep.
Despite a hiccup with her pump engine,
Emily Riedel is hoping to keep the honeymoon alive on claim 14.
Two days out, two days on hot gold,
trying to build a legacy here.
And so far, so good.
We've got a storm rolling in, so we're gonna have a chance to see how we did.
And the box looks really good.
I think we killed it.
Let's see how we did here.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four, five, six, eight, nine,
10, 11, 12, 13, 14,
15, 16, 17, 18, 19...
What a day!
All right.
- Sweet. - Sweet.
20 ounces is worth $36,000.
And the newlyweds are clearly married to a sizzling pay streak.
- Yeah, that's some nice G, guys. - Yep.
We just... We just got to ask for some mercy from the Bering Sea,
and we gotta keep getting out there.
It's longer.
Hopefully, that storm blows over fast 'cause
we're on Hot G and I wanna keep hitting it.
This is important. This is critical.
This is about the long term.
And we've gotta get that 250 ounces going.
It's not just gonna magically appear.
It's gonna be a lot of work this summer,
but I think we're positioned perfectly to pull it off.
The ground is awesome.
We just get the Bering Sea to cooperate a little bit.
Yes.
Absolutely.
I'm feeling that.
Cool.
Back out on the Bering Sea as the storm creeps closer
one team is still on the water.
We're the only ones out here.
It's white capping a little bit.
We got a strong wind from the west.
It is picking up.
Get [bleep] off on the horizon.
I'm just seeing nothing but whitecaps,
and I'm gonna keep digging.
It's getting real dicey.
We're off to a late start and I got a huge payment coming up.
That's why we're still out here.
Everyone else, even precious Mr. Gold,
headed for cover.
Honestly, maybe they were the smart ones.
Hey, let's just pack up for the day.
Let's go.
Yes, we can.
So I really like this location.
So we're gonna drop the marker buoy.
Let's do this.
We're the last to go back into the harbor.
Might as well just say
Everything tells me to go home anyways.
I'm kind of pissed.
I don't like to be told what to do,
but when three things at once are telling you what to do,
you gotta listen to someone.
Well, we got gold in the box and everything is still in one piece.
Barely.
As an owner, I'm gonna chalk this up to a huge win
and get the hell out of here.
We're gonna call it a day.
Do our clean out and see actually what we got.
I hope to God our cleanup is good.
We've gotta see some gold.
Thank you, dear.
You're welcome. Enjoy.
I'd like to check in on social media every now and then.
I mean, they're not all trolls.
And now another episode of Social Hour with Vernon.
Why is all that black stuff in your goal after you clean it?
I like it. That is awesome.
Hey, people who buy gold, they don't care.
They melt it down.
They... I'd say that they refine it.
You know, if I got time, I'll clean it really good.
If I'm in a hurry, I don't clean it that damn good.
I think that's as good as we're gonna get.
Time for a beer.
The price is the same either way, but thanks for asking.
Let's see what else is going on here.
It looks like Vernon has a lots of gold,
but that's only because he leaves the iron and stuff in with the gold
to increase the weight.
The people that buy the gold [bleep] about that.
I mean, if we got time we super clean the gold.
So it looks nice and pretty for everybody out there.
But I guarantee you the gold buyers they don't give a crap about that.
It doesn't matter.
Price is the same.
Our job is to get out there and make gold.
And sometimes we got other things to do besides sit around
and pan gold and clean gold, which takes hours.
This has been another episode of Social Hour with Vernon.
I mean, they let the trolls run wild.
How's it looking?
Gold's looking good, I can tell you that.
I'm excited.
Check it out.
Weigh that sucker up.
This is the first cleanup of the season for the Myrtle.
She's our heavy hitter on the water.
After doing the box check I'm expecting a home run.
I'm expecting to see triple digits.
And we got Dave in the stands cheering.
So the pressure is on.
Ten, 20, 30, 40.
Forty-eight.
Forty-eight-nine.
- Little light. - Little light, huh?
Gotta get it.
Gotta do a little better than that, Shawn.
48.9 ounces is worth over $88,000, far from Mr. Gold's hopes.
Yeah, 'cause that's, you know, a little out over an ounce an hour.
We wanna be on three to four ounces an hour easily.
We'll get there. We'll get there.
We're gonna have some big clean ups, I guarantee you.
Yeah, I hope, it gets better.
I was hoping we had a 100 in there.
And what I seen that box lit up the way it was, it's incredible.
Hopefully we can get on a little better ground.
I think we need to move.
I don't know why we come up so light.
Maybe I misjudged the ground.
I don't know.
But I do know one thing.
I'm aiming for 3000 ounces this year, and this ain't gonna cut it.
Not by a long shot.
Now, with this big storm kicking us off the water, it's only gonna get worse.
So I'm just gonna have to push it harder.
We're gonna have some big days.
I'll tell you that, 'cause I know there's some pockets out there
that haven't been hit and we'll... we'll have 100...
100 ounce days.
Go get the dredge ready to go again.
Go do it again.
You got a lot of money on the line.
We gotta get it going.
It'll pick up.
Across town.
So we're finishing up our cleanup today on the Mistress.
Gonna see exactly how much gold we're on.
And I'm really hoping for 30 ounces today.
That would make me so [bleep] happy.
Please. Pretty please.
This is a big day for Reaper nation.
Maybe the most important cleanout of my career.
It's the first cleanup as an owner of my own operation.
I went for it this season.
To be on target and make our payments,
we need at least 20 ounces to make everything happen today.
But honestly, I'm hoping for more like 30.
We're seeing a lot of gold move into our little containers,
which is amazing 'cause we need as much as we can get.
I'm nervous and excited and waiting the anticipation
of the final, you know, gold count.
Look, that area was hot.
Shawn was there, too.
We both fought over it.
A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into this.
So that scale should be loaded.
It better be.
Moment of truth. Come on, baby.
Okay, here it is.
What do we got?
Ten-point-four seven ounces.
Damn.
This is tough.
Man, it's terrible.
This all is worth about 18 grand.
For a suction dredge, not bad.
But for Kris and his excavator barge, not good.
Which is a kick in the nuts 'cause that was like a little under
quarter ounce an hour.
So quarter once an hour.
And it's unacceptable.
I get that working my age, you know, I get better than that.
I know... I know you're getting worried.
I'm getting worried, too.
The test pans are just flawed obviously.
You know, my problem is I'm not underneath the water seeing the gold,
so I don't have have any clue what we're on.
So look, running an excavation barge, running with the big dogs,
I thought it was gonna be easier.
It wasn't.
Like I'm stressed beyond belief.
I may barely be able to stay above water this summer.
We'll see.
All I can do is dust myself off and have faith that it's gonna get better.
Like immediately.
Little bummed out after that.
I'm a little bummed, too.
But, you know, it's a new operation.
We're learning, Kris.
I'm not... not throwing my hands up and saying, "I give up." You know?
No. I'm just saying, look, you know, literally my...
my six inch operation gets more gold in this thing right now.
This is really... this is embarrassing.
Yeah, this is embarrassing.
We gotta turn this around.
It'll get better.
- Yep. - It'll get better.
I'm hoping. It can't get any worse.
Shawn takes the early lead, but it's still anyone's game.
Next dive on Bering Sea Gold...
Then giant storm surge coming.
It's like...
We gotta really take advantage of this good weather window.
We're gonna send Rick down and kind of see what we're working with.
We're going into a bad weather situation,
but I know the boat can handle it.
It's a last bridge on the Cougar Rock Road.
You should have said
That take on your life and your ass.
Ready to go.
He's tried to do this before with girlfriends I think.
It didn't work out.
Tenhoff.
Pretty excited to see what these rocks and those got here.
We're gonna end up snapping its spud cable.
What [bleep] We're spinning.
We gotta get out of here.
We're on the right track.
The gold is just unbelievably hot.
Yeah, baby!